You don’t have to run ads.
I’m going to say that loud at the start because the rest of this post is going to make the case that you probably should. So let me be clear: nobody owes Meta a single penny of your hard-earned cash. There are small businesses that have grown profitably for a decade without running a single ad. They exist. I’ve worked with some of them.
If you’re one of them, this post isn’t for you. Carry on. Lovely day for it.
If you’re NOT one of them – and most aren’t – let’s have a chat.
The boat metaphor
Imagine your business is a boat. The destination is a sustainable, profitable, lovely-to-run small business. The journey is everything you do to get there.
You can move that boat with wind, with an engine, or with both.
Wind = organic reach. Free in cash terms. Variable. Weather-dependent. Sometimes the wind blows hard and you fly across the water. Sometimes there’s no wind at all and you sit, refreshing your inbox, wondering if you’ve gone wrong.
Engine = paid advertising. Costs petrol money. Predictable. You decide when it runs and how fast. The engine doesn’t care if the wind is blowing – it just goes.
The mistake most small businesses make is treating these as either/or. They’re not. The best-run small businesses I know use both.
‘But organic is free’
Organic isn’t free. It costs you time.
Let’s do the maths. If you post four times a week on Instagram and it takes you 90 minutes to create each post (filming, editing, writing the caption, designing the graphic, scheduling), that’s six hours a week. 24 hours a month. 288 hours a year.
What’s your hourly rate? £40? £80? £120?
At £80 an hour, you’re spending £23,040 a year on organic marketing. And the algorithm decides whether anyone sees it.
Now look at ad spend. £300 a month. £3,600 a year. With YOU deciding who sees what, when.
I’m not saying drop organic. I’m saying stop telling yourself it’s free.
When ads are NOT the answer
Three situations where I’d tell you to put the chequebook away.
1. **You don’t have a working offer.**
If you’ve sold your service to fewer than 10 people for cash, the ads aren’t your problem. The offer is. Test the offer organically first. Get 10 sales. Then think about ads.
2. **You can’t handle more work.**
If your inbox is already full and you’re saying no to enquiries, more leads will make you more stressed, not richer. Sort your operations first.
3. **You’re broke.**
If £300/month is the difference between paying your mortgage and not, ads are not the play. Save up. Build a war chest. Come back when it’s not desperate money.
When ads ARE the answer
If you’re past those three, here’s where ads start earning their place.
- You’ve been posting organically for 12+ months and the work is still unpredictable.
- You can articulate exactly who your ideal customer is and what they want.
- You have at least one piece of content (organic post, reel, video) that converted well organically. That’s the seed for ad creative.
- You’ve got £200-£900/month you can commit consistently for 90+ days.
If three of those are true, you’re not ‘should I try ads?’ anymore. You’re ‘why haven’t I started?’
The engine doesn’t replace the wind
This is the most important bit. Ads don’t replace your organic strategy. They sit alongside it.
Your organic content keeps building trust with people who already know you. Your ads bring in NEW people who don’t. The organic warms them up after the ad introduces them. They’re doing different jobs.
If you turn organic OFF when you start ads, you’ll lose retention. If you skip ads and rely on organic, you’ll cap your growth. Both. Always both.
So… do you need to run ads?
No. You don’t.
But if you’ve been posting consistently for over a year, your inbox is still quiet some weeks, and you’ve got a working offer that converts when you DO get enquiries – you’re not ‘doing well organically.’ You’re stuck on wind.
The engine is sitting right there. Maybe it’s time.
Keep going.
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